It’s that time of year again when the Country Music Association honors another round of outstanding achievements in the genre. Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, and Lainey Wilson are leading the charge with six nominations apiece, with Wilson both hosting and performing. While some fans were outraged to see Kelsea Ballerini’s name left off the list of Entertainer of the Year nominees, the two-time CMA Award winner did pick up her 10th career nomination for Female Vocalist of the Year. During Wednesday’s (Nov. 19) ceremony at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Ballerini took the stage to perform her latest single, “I Sit in Parks.”
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Kelsea Ballerini Explores “the Not-So-Glittery Parts” on New EP
Out Nov. 7, “I Sit in Parks” heralded the release of Kelsea Ballerini’s six-song EP, Mount Pleasant, one week later. Brimming with Ballerini’s trademark introspection, the lead single sees her reflecting on the road not taken. In this case, that road is motherhood: Did I miss it? By now, is it / A lucid dream? Is it my fault / For chasing things? A body clock/ Doesn’t wait for.
Mount Pleasant comes just one year after Ballerini’s fifth studio album, Patterns, which peaked atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. The EP sums up “a chapter of heavy self examination, longing, and stepping further into who i am as a 32 year old woman,” the “Baggage” singer wrote on social media.
“after patterns and my first arena tour, i had the biggest dopamine dump of my adult life and months ‘off’ to really sit in the feelings that were coming up in the stillness and quiet,” she wrote. “while i love to be sparkly and confident, i was feeling heavy waves of insecurity that i hadn’t really taken pen to paper about before.”
During a Nov. 17 pop-up show in Nashville, Kelsea Ballerini tearfully thanked fans for embracing her latest work. “Thanks for embracing the not-so-glittery parts of me over the last few years,” she said. “I know that I’m the luckiest to be able to have all these very big feelings and be like, ‘I need to put it in music or I will combust.’”
Featured image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for ABA
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